As the new director of outpatient services for Mount Sinai Hospital Queens, Doctor Melissa Lee hopes to make the relationship between doctor and patient more efficient.

Lee was raised in Astoria and Woodside, went on to Yale University before completing her residency with the Harvard Medical School and worked as an internist and pediatrician on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona.

Now, in addition to supervising physicians in the Family Health Associates and Physician Associates practices at Mount Sinai Queens, Lee is also working on care quality improvement initiatives.

Mount Sinai Queens is installing an electronic health records system called EPIC in the hospital and in its outpatient facilities, Family Health Associates and Physician Associates.

Lee oversees the doctors in those two facilities.

“It's very exciting for us,” she said, referring to the installation of EPIC.

“Another big initiative is trying to make our practices more of a medical home-base for our patients with a team-based care,” Lee added.

This entails having a team of professionals, including physicians, nutritionists and social workers all looking at the same health chart to act as a team to care for the patient as a whole.

This practice already exists at the hospital, Lee said, but “we're working to make that more seamless and fluid.”

Lee said she chose to work at Mount Sinai because she lives in Astoria and loves the area.

Aside from her hospital duties, Lee coaches The Rockies, a neighborhood baseball team from the Immaculate Conception Youth Program, is a member of the school leadership team for P.S. 166 in Long Island City, and works with the LIC YMCA.

“Moving back to Astoria and working here isn't just about being a primary care provider, but really being involved in the community,” she said.